Hiroshi Hase

Hiroshi Hase (馳 浩^?, born on May 5, 1961 in Oyabe, Toyama, Japan) is a retired Japanese professional wrestler who worked for New Japan Pro Wrestling and All Japan Pro Wrestling, prior to transitioning to a position in the Japanese parliament. He currently holds the position of chairman for the PWF, which is the governing body for all championships in All Japan Pro Wrestling. [1]

Career

Hase started his career as an amateur wrestler, representing Japan at the 1984 Summer Olympics. He placed ninth in the Greco-Roman wrestling tournament, making him one of the Top 10 wrestlers in the Olympics. He began his professional wrestling career in Calgary for Stu Hart's Stampede Wrestling promotion, under a mask, in a tag team known as the Viet Cong Express with Fumihiro Niikura. When he returned to Japan, Hase wrestled for NJPW's junior heavyweight division, winning the IWGP Junior Heavyweight title twice between December 1987 and March 1989. He is one of a handful of wrestlers, Japanese or American, to successfully graduate from the junior heavyweight to heavyweight class. In the 1990s, Hase had many memorable encounters with famous Japanese talents first in New Japan, and later All Japan. Hiroshi Hase was involved in a classic December 1992 encounter with Great Muta, in which the "Muta Scale" was created, due to the incredible amount of blood shed by Muta.

Hase and Mutoh were also regular tag team partners; they won the IWGP Tag Team Championship twice, including a victory over the Steiner Brothers, and won the annual tag team tournament twice. As Mutoh became established as a singles wrestler through his holding of the IWGP Heavyweight Championship, however, Hase was left behind, and was only able to win the WCW International World Heavyweight Championship (which briefly replaced the NWA World Heavyweight Championship) for two weeks in March 1994. In July 1995, Hiroshi Hase was elected into the Japanese House of Councillors as the Senior Vice Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology. Hase is one of a number of professional wrestlers to transition into politics, other notables being predecessor Antonio Inoki, and later Atsushi Onita and Great Sasuke. The following year he announced retirement from New Japan, only to jump to the rival All Japan Pro Wrestling. His last New Japan bout was against Tadao Yasuda (the retirement announcement was most likely done to avoid a loss to Yasuda, which would have been the outcome had he actually announced a withdrawal rather than a retirement).

In All Japan, Hase did not contend for titles again despite his name recognition, as he made politics his full-time job. In 2001 he was re-elected by his constituency in Ishikawa Prefecture. The same year he founded the multi-promotional Bad Ass Translate Trading stable with Mutoh, Taiyō Kea and Jinsei Shinzaki; Hase and Mutoh reformed their team to battle Jun Akiyama and Yuji Nagata on October 8, the rising stars of their respective promotions (NOAH and NJPW), and were defeated in a ceremonial passing of the torch match that highlighted the advancement of professional wrestling in Japan since it was permanently established in 1951. When Mutoh (along with Satoshi Kojima and Kendo Ka Shin) jumped to All Japan the following year, Hase was seen as having influenced them (if not Mutoh at least) in their decision. Antonio Inoki, who had once preceded Hase to the Japanese Diet, blasted Hase and suggested that he resign his position in the Diet, but nothing came out of this.

Hase's final match occurred on August 27, 2006. He tagged with Katsuhiko Nakajima & Satoshi Kojima to face TARU, Kohei Suwama, & "brother" YASSHI of the Voodoo Murderers. He pinned YASSHI with a Northern Lights Suplex for the victory, ending his in-ring career after 20 years. A week later, he was elected into the Wrestling Observer Newsletter Hall of Fame. On July 10, 2007, Hase took over the duty of the PWF chairman, after Stan Hansen (who held the position since 2000) voluntarily resigned from the position. [2]

In wrestling

• Finishing and signature moves
  • Golden Arm Bomber (Ura–nage)
  • Northern lights suplex – innovated
  • Belly to back suplex
  • Dragon suplex
  • Giant swing
  • Scoop powerslam
  • STS

Championships and accomplishments

• New Japan Pro Wrestling
  • IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship (2 times)
  • IWGP Tag Team Championship (4 times) – with Kensuke Sasaki (2) and Keiji Mutoh (2)
  • Super Grade Tag League (1993, 1994) – with Keiji Mutoh
  • WCW International World Heavyweight Championship (1 time)
• Stampede Wrestling
  • Stampede International Tag Team Championship (1 time) – with Fumihiro Niikura
  • Stampede Wrestling Hall of Fame ^[1]
• Wrestling Observer Newsletter awards
  • Match of the Year (1991) with Kensuke Sasaki vs. Rick and Scott Steiner at the WCW/New Japan Supershow, March 21, Tokyo, Japan
  • Best Technical Wrestler (1993)
  • Wrestling Observer Newsletter Hall of Fame (Class of 2006)

References

External links

Professional wrestling portal

• Shining Road profile